Youneverknow III

[Jonathan Lighter]

Wacki blithely claims that it was originally called "The Department *for*
War."

I cannot confirm this.

JL

On Mon, Jul 9, 2012 at 11:46 AM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Youneverknow III
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Jul 9, 2012, at 11:14 AM, Baker, John wrote:
>
> > Specifically, there never was a War Department as such, although it was
> often called that.
>
> Is this any different from the non-existence of the State Department
> (which I assume is likewise officially the Department of State)?
>
> LH
>
> > The Department of War was established on August 7, 1789, in the seventh
> statute passed by Congress.  It retained that title until passage of the
> National Security Act of 1947, which transmogrified it into the Department
> of the Army, which in 1949 was made part of the Department of Defense.
> >
> > John Baker
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On
> Behalf Of Benjamin Barrett
> > Sent: Sunday, July 08, 2012 7:22 PM
> > To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> > Subject: Re: Youneverknow III
> >
> > According to Wikipedia, they continued believing that until 1947, though
> it was also called the War Department:
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US_Department_of_War
> >
> > Benjamin Barrett
> > Seattle, WA
> >
> > On Jul 8, 2012, at 3:24 PM, Dan Goncharoff wrote:
> >
> >>
> >> There never was a Department of War?
> >>
> >> In 1832 they thought there was:
> >>
> >> http://www.jstor.org/stable/60205341
> >>
> >> DanG
> >>
> >>
> >> On Sun, Jul 8, 2012 at 2:53 PM, W Brewer <brewerwa at gmail.com> wrote:
> >>
> >>>
> >>> Wilson wrote: <<<Department of War > Department of Defense  >
> >>> Department of Good?>>>
> >>> WB: I once heard Hal Gleason rant that there never was a Department
> >>> of War or a Defense Department: it was a War Department and is a
> >>> Department of Defense.
> >>> War Office > War Department > Department of Defense > *Homeland "R" Us?
> >>>
> >
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